A Band Grows Art for Its 100 Songs

Robocobra Quartet wanted pictures that matched how it makes its music. Its album Hundred Pieces contains 100 songs, each with its own artwork. The band made the pictures by growing mould in petri dishes. Mould is a living thing that can grow on old food. A petri dish is a small round dish used for science.

The band did not try to control every part of the pictures. Thibault Barillon could choose how each dish started, including its colours. After that, the living material grew and changed over time. Different shapes and patterns appeared as part of this process. The band photographed the dishes at different points during their growth.

Keeping the photos similar helped the changing material remain the main focus. The team used a white background and a fixed camera position. It also kept the lights in place during the work. This allowed the band to show the pictures without much editing. The same setup connected the images while each dish looked different.

This way of working also matched the band's approach to songs. Chris W Ryan and Thibault value ideas that appear while playing. They wanted to let songs develop without forcing one fixed result. Sometimes a simple phone recording could be the right final form. The growing pictures gave this musical approach a matching visual form.

The pictures now appear with the band's music on Spotify. Thibault also made a website where digital shapes grow in changing ways. The same idea connects the songs, their images, and the website. A few shared rules leave room for many different results. The project shows how a creative idea can connect several kinds of work.